Not a Princess After All
by Femke-the-lotus
Summary: a WHAT IF story: When Zuko visited the Dragonbone Catacombs to read about the history of Fire Lord Sozin, his eye fell on another scroll containing a kind of diary, in which Ozai confessed that Azula wasn't his FULL sister, but was born from him and another woman. Another search starts to find Azula's birth mother and her past...
1. Chapter 1: the mysterious scroll

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Scroll

 **Zuko's POV**

I was about to leave the Dragonbone Catacombs, where I had found the scroll my traitorous uncle had wanted me to find. Suddenly, I saw another scroll, a few meters away from the others, that had a strange, almost faded, inscription on it. Curious, I picked it up and used the cuff of my robe to clear it.

 **"Do not touch: TOP SECRET INFORMATION** " the sign said. Below it, a weird mark appeared, an eye with strange red things coming out of it, and a smaller circle underneath it. The handwriting on the scroll was definitely that of my father _(I had seen his handwriting enough times to recognize it wherever I go),_ so I opened it: it might be something important. Suddenly, I heard a door open nearby. The wise Fire Nation men were back...

 _"I have to get out of here. They can't find me here, or they will tell Father,"_ I thought, as I carefully put the scroll holder back where I had found it. I used my sword to make dust fly around the room in order to cover up my tracks, and left, just in time before I would have been noticed.

After confronting Uncle about my findings, I lied down on my bed and opened the scroll I had stolen from the Catacombs, taking a deep breath before starting to read it.

 _"August 6th_

 _Despite being married to Ursa, I, Fire Prince Ozai, keep getting attracted to one of the maids I have working for me. There is one in particular that keeps getting my attention. a bit of a mysterious woman. For some reason she always wears a bandana around her head, even though she isn't allowed to. She insists on keeping the thing on, telling me that what is on her forehead should bother me even more. This makes me even more curious and attracted to her. One day, she found herself spending some time with me alone, while Ursa went to gather some herbs that would help with her pregnancy pains, for a few days anyway."_

I sighed, already feeling this was going to be some sort of a sex manual, describing all my father's affairs with the servants. Even though I knew this could ruin his reputation as the Fire Lord, I wasn't interested in it. I scanned the rest of the scroll, and suddenly I noticed Azula's name, somewhere between the lines. I therefore decided to read the whole message, not believing what I had read. It couldn't be, and yet, it was...

 _"December 12th_

 _Today maid X came to me with the news that she was pregnant. I was quite surprised, yet pleased with the news, since the doctors had said that my wife Ursa wouldn't be able to give birth to another child after that_ _ **FAILURE**_ _Zuko was born. Hopefully this child will be a lot more like me, especially since lady X has..."_

The last part was unfinished, as if my father had, at the last moment, decided that whatever was so special about this lady wasn't worth mentioning. I was now interested: since Ozai had written that my mother had been disabled from getting another child after my birth, that would mean that Azula couldn't be a full sister of mine. Quickly, I read on to a few months later, and indeed on the nine-month mark I saw what I wanted to know.

 _"September 12th_

 _Exactly nine months after lady X announced her pregnancy, she went into labour. I called Ursa and informed her she was about to welcome her new child: the prince or princess of the Fire Nation. She got a bit mad at me when I explained to her what I had done to have another child, but it was the only option we had left. Woman X gave birth to a healthy baby girl to whom I gave the name Azula_ _(after her grandfather),_ _and soon came to the conclusion that this child would be a outstanding bender. She would be more fit for the throne than that little brat Zuko, who is lucky to have been born. Of course, there is the problem that lady X wants her child to grow up to be like her, so I have to get rid of her first. This can easily be done, of course, since I know her secret..."_

This marked the end of the scroll. Nothing about this mysterious woman's secret or where she could be now, just that she was Azula's birth mother. However, I wondered what to do now. If I were to tell Azula about this, she was most likely going to ask about her mother, and I would be unable to help.

 _"I should probably tell her,"_ I thought _. "She has the right to know Father lied to her. All these years..."_

I got up and put the scroll in my pocket before walking to her room, knowing I had to confront my little ( _half-)_ sister with this scroll. This mysterious scroll with information that was sure to change both our lives...forever...

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** And with that I end the first chapter of my new story. I hope you all liked it!

Of course Zuko felt it was his duty to tell Azula what he found out, even though the two of them aren't the best of friends. I know, from reading _"The Search",_ that despite the fact that his sister was insane and tried to kill him multiple times Zuko **DID** care about her and wanted to help her.

I did my best to make this story as realistic as possible, but there is always room for improvement, so let me know your idea's in the command section

That's all for now folks! Thanks for reading and thanks chipster-roo for doing such a awesome job as a beta reader! don't forget to

 **REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 2: lies of the firelord

Chapter 2: Lies of the Fire Lord

 **Zuko's POV**

After I had finished reading the mysterious scroll, I went to the room I knew Azula was in, not bothering to knock. I found my sister combing her hair, ready to go to bed.

"What do you want, Zu-Zu?" she asked with a bored tone in her voice, like she always did whenever she saw me. I took a deep breath before sitting down next to her and handing her the scroll and Uncle's letter.

"Uncle managed to get **THIS** by my doorstep somehow. I was curious so I went to check it out," I said, as I placed Uncle's scroll in her lap, which she opened and read, before handing it back to me.

"Was that all you came to tell me? I **WAS** planning to go to bed early today," Azula said in the same bored tone. It was hard for me not to walk out and let her be, even though I knew she would never find out the truth about her mother. No, it was my duty as her big brother, to tell the truth, even if we were only half-brother and sister. Even if I hated her, even if she made my life miserable, she was still my sister, and I had to tell her this, no matter what she would do to me, since she would most likely refuse to acknowledge the truth until she found proof.

"No, during my time in the Catacombs I found something else as well. Something that might be of your interest," I said, as I held up the scroll with the top secret messages. This made Azula's eyes gleam.

"Finally using your brains like they were meant to be used, Zu-Zu. Impressive." She smirked as she took the scroll and started to read it. I smiled, swallowing a remark about her own brain, and waited until she reached the most important part...

 **Azula's POV**

I have to admit I was somewhat impressed when Zu-Zu came to me with the news that he had broken into the Dragonbone Catacombs and had even stolen a scroll, but when I started to read the scroll, I was horrified: it said I wasn't a Fire Nation princess, just a mere peasant chosen by the Fire Lord for my abilities...

"How can I be sure you didn't make this up, just to get rid of me?" I asked with a smirk on my face, suddenly remembering Zu-Zu knew I was the only other person suited for the throne, and Father would rather see me on the throne, than that weak, pathetic Zu-Zu anyway. He had all the reasons to write this and act like it was Father's, just to get rid of me.

"I didn't, Azula. You should know this isn't even **MY** handwriting," Zu-zu replied and after that he wrote something down on a piece of paper for me to compare to the writing on scroll. Even though what Zuko had written was a short message, I could immediately see that it was indeed **NOT** Zu-Zu's handwriting on the scroll; the his was a lot messier.

"In that case, **WE** go confront Father, since this is **YOUR** discovery," I said as I looked at Zu-Zu with a smirk on my face, since I could at least put the blame on him for having been in the Dragonbone Catacombs, where it was strictly forbidden for us to go. Even if maybe I would have to face the truth...what was I going to think? " _Come on Azula,"_ I thought, _"you're_ _ **NOT**_ _the same Azula mentioned in the scroll, that's impossible!_ _Focus..."_

 **Zuko's POV**

"You seem to be awfully cool about this...you okay?" I asked, as I placed a hand on my sister's _(or rather my half-sister's)_ knee, with a worried look in my eyes, since even though she always made my life miserable, and even though Father favored her over me, we are blood related, and I do care about her.

"I'm fine. So stop pretending that you care," Azula snapped at me as she stomped out, before going to the throne room and kicking the door open. Father was sitting on his throne with some of his councilmen around him, when Azula and I came in.

"Zuko, Azula! What's the meaning of this?' Father raged at the sight of us, of course calling my name first, since Azula was his favorite and could get away with pretty much anything. I, on the other hand, had to be careful with my choice of words, since Ozai **ALWAYS** scolded me whenever I did something wrong in his eyes.

"I wanted to ask you something, Father. And it **IS** important," Azula said, as she looked at our father straight in the eye. Immediately after hearing this, he sent away his councilmen, something else only Azula could accomplish. If it had been me standing there and demanding to talk to him ,he would have said it had to wait until later, and if I had objected to his decision _(if I had even_ _ **DARED**_ _to object_ ), he would have yelled at me.

"So, what is it you want to talk about, Azula?" Ozai now asked with a honey sweet voice, not at all suspecting something was wrong. Instead he most likely thought she was going to complain about some of the staff members, or ask for something new to wear, or something like that.

"Zuko has been in the Dragonbone Catacombs to read the history of Great-grandfather to fresh up his schooling, which was the idea of that traitorous uncle of ours..." Azula started her story, of course she was putting the blame on **ME.** I hadn't expected anything less from her to be honest. I had expected father to scold me for going down there, but he didn't; instead he turned pale as a blanket, probably feeling where this was going.

"He also found your old sex diary. There was something written in it that I didn't understand. It said...that Mother wasn't able to get another child after Zu-Zu was born," Azula said as a smirk appeared on her face, at which Ozai sat back in his chair with a shocked look on his face. He probably hadn't ever expected Azula to find out about this, which meant he didn't know what to reply. This conversation was going to be either very short, or very interesting, especially since this was the first time I wasn't the one who was going to be in trouble.

"Oh look, it also says someone named "woman X" has given you a daughter!" She did a fake surprised gasp. "Well that's a surprise, the child's name is also Azula! What a coincidence..." Azula had a challenging look in her eyes, something I would be scolded for in her place. I would have been told it wasn't my place to speak to him like that, but not Azula, Father's little favorite. She was allowed to say what was on her mind, even if it was disrespectful to him.

 _"And all because she is a more talented firebender than me. That's not fair if you ask me,"_ I thought, as I watched Father's pale face as he leaned back in his throne, looking like a defeated man, now that his dirty little secret was out. He was going to suffer the consequences of his lies...

 **Azula's POV**

 _ **"Who is this woman X? What is her name and where can I find her?"**_ I half-asked half-demanded as I looked at my father angrily, after confronting him with the lie he made me believe for years, the lie that Ursa was my mom. The thought that I had always believed it blindly! I knew my father was a born liar! It suddenly made sense to me why she always preferred Zuko over me: not only did she think I was a monster, she also knew I wasn't **HER** child, and that's why she shunned me.

 **"How should I know? I banished her after you were born! It leaves me** _ **COLD**_ **where she is!"** Father barked at me, after which he clapped his hand over his mouth, knowing he had just confirmed my suspicions. Ursa was indeed not my birth mother, it was this woman X, whoever she was...

"Then I will find her, wherever she is," I told him with a angry look on my face, before I turned around and stomped out of the room, slamming the door shut behind me, leaving Zu-Zu alone with father, even though I knew he was probably going to take out his anger on my brother _(or rather my half-brother),_ since he was the one who had revealed his dirty little secret. But now I wasn't interested in listening at Zuko getting scolded: all I cared about was finding out who this woman X was. Whoever she was and **WHEREVER** she was, I was going to find her.

 _"Not that I think she will be much better then Ursa. I just want to know who my birth mother is. Yeah, that's it! Love is still for the weak and I'm_ _ **NOT**_ _weak! I'm not weak...I'm not..."_ I thought, repeating that I wasn't weak, like it was a mantra. But as I kept repeating it I felt something sting in my eye, and before I knew it something hot and wet fell on my knee, soon followed by more. I only realized I was crying when I suddenly had difficulty catching my breath. As that happened I felt a soft hand on my shoulder, and as I looked up, I saw Zuko was standing behind me, looking at me calmly.

"Listen...I know we're not the best of buddies, and we will never be. But you are family, and even if you're only half-family, I do care about you, and I want to help you find your birth mother," Zuko said as he looked at me sternly, as if he seriously meant what he said. I looked back at him with a smirk, not believing this at all: love is for the weak. That had always been my motto; only with fear and scheming could one gain power.

"Yeah sure, you just want to be rid of me...Well Zu-Zu, if this is true, I'm sure you have an idea how we could find this woman?" I asked, seeing through his little scheme to get rid of me. Zu-Zu was a really pathetic liar.

"Yes. We just look in the registers of all our servants and look who was fired around the day you were born. There can't be too many, so we might come across her name," Zuko said after thinking about this for a moment. I nodded, and we walked to the room where the registers were kept. I screamed at the guards we needed to see something in the register for a private matter and that we wanted to be alone. They stormed off and left us alone, knowing that angering the princess was a grave mistake **NOBODY** wanted to make. They all knew me well enough to know they would either get banished or killed if they angered me.

"Well, Zu-Zu, I got us in, let's not dilly-dally about it and get a move on." I smirked as we walked to the big register book and watched as Zu-Zu immediately went to the page where he could find a list of all the people who were fired on the day I was born. There was lots of them: Father loved to fire people just as much as I did, that was for sure.

 _"We sure have a lot in common,"_ I thought, as I watched Zu-Zu skim the pages, most likely for a maid that would seem fit to him to act as my _"mother"._ That was until he hit one name that was scratched black, leaving only one letter visible, the letter **X.**

 _"That must be her, but her name is scratched away, as if father wanted to erase her from existence,"_ Zu-Zu mumbled as he looked at the page, before his eyes lit up and he looked at me with a smile on his face.

"Do you think you can yell us into the cell where Uncle is held?" he asked me with a smirk, which made me smirk as well, since yelling at people was the thing I did best. The scratched name did make me wonder, though: it could have been either Zu-Zu or that fat uncle of mine scratching the name...

"Can dragons fly?" I asked, as I looked at the scratched name sternly, though it wasn't fully true that I thought **HE** had been the one that scratched the name. I mean, I had to yell at those guards to get them out of my way. Zu-zu would have **NEVER** been able to do that, so he couldn't have sneaked in to scratch the name. This made me wonder who had, and why...

 _"Maybe Uncle. Hmm, that fat man could be in on this. He could have gotten the guards out of his way,"_ I thought, as I followed Zuko out of the room towards the place where Uncle was imprisoned. After some more screaming, the guard let us in the cell, where our fat uncle was standing with his back turned to us. In another situation, this would have enraged me and made me burn him alive, but not now; I just waited until he noticed me.

"Uncle, I have a question: in the Dragonbone Catacombs I found something, and I want to know what you know about it," Zu-Zu said as he placed the scroll before Uncle, who picked it up and slowly read it, before his eyed widened in shock.

 _"Azula...is..."_ He looked up at me with wide eyes and a look of shock and disbelief.

"Spare me that, I know you and Zu-Zu are behind this," I commanded as I folded my arms and rolled my eyes at him, not believing that the fat man knew nothing of the scroll and its secret.

 _"And how do you explain your father's reaction then? He was shocked to see you knew,"_ a voice in my head ( _that sounded like the voice of Ursa)_ told me. This made me think back to the confrontation with father; he had indeed been shocked to learn I knew the truth **. IF** it was the truth, which I was still doubting.

"We're not behind anything, Azula, we want to help you," Uncle Fatty assured me as he looked at me sternly, before he looked at the ground with a pondering look.

"I don't know **WHO** this woman X is, but I know she lives in the poor Shao Kwong village. That's where Ozai gets most of his servants, because they were very loyal to him," Iroh said as he went to the back of his cell and removed a stone, getting a piece of cloth out. He unwrapped it, revealing a crown.

"This was always meant to be yours, Zuko. This is only worn by the crown prince," Iroh told Zu-Zu as he put the thing in his hands.

"Which I am, if Azula is indeed that woman X's child," Zu-Zu realized as he looked at his uncle with wide eyes, which made me roll my eyes at him.

"Duh Zu-Zu. That's something even a turtle duck could understand!" I snapped at him as I walked to the door and opened it. "Say bye to Uncle Fat Tummy! We're going on a trip to Shao Kwong!"

"Take care Zuko," Uncle Fatty told Zu-Zu with a small smile.

"I will, Uncle. Thank you for the help." Zu-Zu smiled at Uncle Fatty, before we turned and left the cell. On to Shao Kwong...

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** And with that I end the second chapter of the story! I hope you all liked it!

Please keep in mind that this is a _**"what if"**_ story, so it will contain some differences from the original series as well as character bonding/changes in Azula's behavior. especially after she found out the truth about her past.

Iroh only talked to Zuko because he told his uncle about the scroll he had found. the scene with the happy reunion between Zuko and Uncle Iroh will still happen later.

That's all for now, keep reading everyone! and thanks chipter roo! for beta reading the first two chapters for me! don't forget to

 **REVIEW!**


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